Help me rank these cities (Texas and southeast) (best, state, better)

[politburo]

I'm about to submit a rank list of medical residency programs in order to find out where I'll be working the next 4 to 5 years. After submitting my application, I have the following options, and based on what I know or think I know, I am going to be eating a crap sandwich. In other words, I am pretty disappointed at my prospects. Anyway, here they are.

Charlottesville
Gainesville, FL
New Orleans
Knoxville
Jackson, MS
Memphis
San Antonio
Louisville
Lexington, KY
Mobile
Tampa
Birmingham

I am in my early thirties and married with no kids. My wife is a school administrator. I like bigger cities. I'm a fan of an SEC school not located in one of the above cities. I'm white and nerdy. I have a ton of student loan debt, so cheap is good.

I have done a decent amount of research on these fine locale. However, I'd like to hear it from someone else, preferably a young professional transplant to one or more of the above places. Please help me not move to an awful city.

[Dawn.Davenport]

Factoring COL, nerdy things to do, the job market, and the fact that you have kids, my sense is that Louisville is your best. Though I have not been to many cites on you list (Gainsville, Jackson, Knoxville). But Louisville has a lot of fun neat things, yet still cheap enough for most middle class folks a nice, relatively large single-family home. And it doesn't have nearly the amount of crime as other cities on your list.

San Antonio is probably a little better in terms of economy, but not as fun of a city. Charlottesville is one of my favorite collegetowns in the country, but I'm not sure what the job market is like.

You also might care to check out the Cincinatti 'burbs on the Kentucky side.

[Nemean]

It's kind of hard to be experts on all those towns. Here's what I have on the ones I know

Charlottesville:
Pros: Good food for a town its size
Big on local breweries, vineyards and orchards
Lots of historical stuff
Good public transportation
Traffic isn't too bad
Free Friday concerts during the summer
Small free art museum
Great nearby hikes (AT, the Rivanna trail is nice trail around the city though not necessarily the best marked at times)
Tries to be bike friendly
Hilly if you like that

Cons: Small, I think it's the smallest on your list
Greek food isn't as available as other places
Feels like there are only three types of people: Artsy, preppy and poor
Borderline cultish about Thomas Jefferson
Virginia driving laws
Pre-car layout (It's easy to get lost at the beginning)

Birmingham:
Pros: Pretty much everyone loves to see green space
Awesome free attractions (Art museum, Sloss, Botanical Gardens, I think the civil rights museum is free on Sundays)
Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival
Great food at every price range and a good amount of variety (with lots of local fast(ish) food chains to fancy restaurants)
Good state/big parks relatively near the city (Ruffner Mountain, Red Mountain, Oak Mountain, Tannehill)
Hilly
Lots of fun/interesting hidden things (Second longest continuously lasting drag queen pageant, local historical hero was a bit of a drama queen madam, historic mayor liked to have crazy parties at his estate built to look like Vestavia)
Strong sense of wanting to preserve its unique local history and not in a sugar coated way
Barber Motorsports Museum (I don't even like cars, and I find that place amazing)

Cons.
Poor public transportation, not the most biker friendly (drivers and terrain)
Spread out attractions
Hard to know about things without local help
Local politics
Physical social divide along Red Mountain
People generally have sense that the city is looked down on (some get overboosty, others down play the city and mention suburbs)
Relatively higher crime rate, (still a US city, so not that bad)

Note or two about Knoxville: Awesome massive used book store, lots of chain food, is pretty active in trying to promote downtown

[politburo]

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully I can get opinions on most of them. I've done a good bit of research on here using the search function as well, but some threads are quite outdated.

[missmc66]

Louisville and Lexington Ky both have reasonable COL. Both big sports towns. Decent hopitals. Uof L ranked one the best trauma units.